This Other Eden

Content Warning: This guide includes depictions of racism, discrimination, forced eviction, eugenics, nonconsensual relationships, and rape.

In 1793, Benjamin Honey, a formerly enslaved man, and his Irish wife, Patience, settle off the coast of Maine. Benjamin is an experienced carpenter who seeks to establish his own “Garden of Eden” on the island. He collects apple seeds and sets out to grow an orchard on the island to honor a memory of his mother. He collects more seeds and advice as payment for work on the mainland before successfully growing an orchard. There, he feels his mother’s presence, thus naming the island Apple Island.

In 1911, 119 years later, Esther Honey, Benjamin and Patience’s great-granddaughter, sits with her own son, Eha, and three grandchildren, Ethan, Tabitha, and Charlotte, on the first day of spring. She tells the story of the hurricane of 1815. There were then nearly 30 people on the island, but a giant storm swept over the island, washing away structures and families alike. Benjamin and Patience escaped with their children and grandchildren. Benjamin directed them to the Penobscot pine, the tallest tree on the island. On their way out of the house, Patience grabbed a makeshift flag she stitched together for Benjamin.